Unholy alliance

This blog kicks off on the day of the Queens Speech, but the one thing they won't be legislating against will be speech against queens (sorry).

Speaking on Today this morning Charles Clarke said the Parliament Act would be used if the House of Lords sent back the Bill to Outlaw Incitement Religious Hatred for a third time.

Concerns about freedom of speech aside, why is the government working so hard to implement this particular bill when it rejected similar proposals to protect people on the grounds of their sexuality or disability?

While one likely outcome of the Bill will be to surpress much-needed dialogue around religion, it will remain perfectly ok to claim gays will burn in Hell, providing generations of queer-bashers with divine endorsement.

Truth is the Bill has little to do with "closing a gap" as the government claims and everything to do with buying back the Muslim vote.

This might work as a short-term fix, but aside from scaring a few news editors into spiking items on Islam, how long until a BNP supporter manages to goad the authorities into the prosecution - and publicity - they crave, thereby further stoking public paranoia around "the other"?

In fact the only people who are really likely to benefit from the Bill will be the extremists on either side who instinctively oppose freedom of speech and will be quick to capitalise on the PR possibilities the Bill provides.

My Labour-supporting friends slag off Respect for snuggling up to extremists, but their own party is also paying its obsequies.